i've been learning recently that I really have no clue about the outcome of any given project. I can put a lot of effort into knowing every aspect of a story before I set out to do it, but some how it ends up becoming something else. More times than not, better than I thought it could have been in the first place. If anything this makes me feel inadequate, like i'm not good enough to control a story in some way. But so what, PHE!
Me and max recently got back from shooting a story on Tony Anderson. An amazing composer and one individual that is pretty damn talented. Even if he doesn't think so.
I'm not really sure what I thought this project was gonna be when we set out. During pre production our plates were a little full with other projects. So the pre pro really went through a run of the mill research and prep time, nothing special. Going into it we thought we could tell a pretty good story of success, and how its not all its cracked up to be. When money and a little bit of fame creep into your art, it tends to get a little watered down, mainly because you're scared to lose what you have. This is right where Tony was sitting. in a place of limbo, trying to get back.
Here are some stills we were referencing for mood. and lighting. Most of our reference stills come from photography. Photographers that we like and think have a unique cinematic style. Ex: Mac Scott, Rog Walker, Henrik Knudsen, Lina Scheunius. To name a few.
sounds great right? sure.
We flew out to Lexington Kentucky and started on our normal routine, hanging out with Tony, getting dinner, talking about what he's doing currently, shooting the breeze. This time with an artist is always the most valuable time. It brakes down the barriers that would noramlly be in place when you have an agenda. The agenda being the camera over you're shoulder. We talked about wine, and music, and also wine. But then he started to talk about this guy named Donnie Robison.
Donnie started showing up at his studio door when he was moving in. He was really being a distraction. Tony initially was blowing him off, saying "Hey man I got deadlines I need to crank on." Tony's relationship with Donnie started to get revealed to him as something opposite of what he thought it would be. He was assuming that he needed to be there for Donnie. Give Donnie love and friendship. But Tony discovered it was much of the opposite. Donnie was there for Tony.
The film become about the relationship. or rather relationships that bring us out of ourselves. The ones that make us sacrifice somethings. The ones that remind us that life isn't about "me" and my way of life. Its hard when you get out of your comfort zone and have to do something that you wouldn't normally find yourself doing.
In the end, it came out lovely.
We mainly used the Canon C100 with a 24-105 for all the doc style stuff. And for the slomo we used the C500 to a odyssey 7q.
